Inhibition

Inhibition, in enzymology, a phenomenon in which a compound, called an inhibitor, in most cases similar in structure to the substance (substrate) upon which an enzyme acts to form a product, interacts with the enzyme so that the resulting complex either cannot undergo the usual reaction or cannot form the usual product. The inhibitor may function by combining with the enzyme at the site at which the substrate usually combines (competitive inhibition) or at some other site (noncompetitive inhibition). In the latter, the inhibitor does not prevent binding of the substrate to the enzyme but sufficiently changes the shape of the site at which catalytic activity occurs so as to prevent it.